Looking Out To Sea

I’ve been watching a lot of clips recently from the Mark Kermode/Simon Mayo review slot on Radio 5 Live. The radio reviews are filmed and broadcast on their Youtube channel so you can see the full interaction and gesticulation of Mark Kermode.

I’m not the kind of person who seeks out reviews for films I want to watch. If the trailer or word-of-mouth suggests it’s good or interesting I’ll give it a go. But I do like comparing reviews of films that I’ve seen because it’s good to get others’ perspectives, particularly the views of people who are actually immersed in film as viewers.

I mostly agree with Mark Kermode’s views but the interesting point, which I’ve yet to really explain, is that I don’t mind when we disagree. Partly because he is often very clear that the context of any film review is as subjective as the film-going experience: personal mood, expectations, comfortable seating, well, it all makes a difference. His reviews are as coloured by that subjectivity as mine are so we both have a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Of course one of the real delights about any critic is to see them really slating something. Not a film that they think is not much fun but something they think is really terrible — which for Mark Kermode generally means “a Michael Bay movie”.

So I invite you to watch his review of Michael Bay’s live-action Transformers movie. And despite being a fan of the 80s cartoon feature he briefly mentions I thought this was a terrible movie.